MAGNOLIA – The Montgomery County Grille has it all: steaks,
seafood and spirits, but not the drinking kind.

From bodiless shadows, tugs at apron strings and random
temperature changes within the old rooms, restaurant employees have
experienced it all from the yellow house’s friendly ghost.

Paranormal explorer Gabriel Morales plans to visit the
establishment Feb. 4 with his crew to seek out any unseen
residents.

“Something has claimed this house and they’re not leaving it,”
said Cindy Love, the restaurant’s co-owner. “They’re allowing us to
be here, and they’re letting us know that.”

Several employees have experienced “haunting” during and outside
of business hours since the restaurant opened in August 2011,
including cook Tracy Caballero. A Hawaiian native, he said he has
an understanding of the supernatural and does not feel threatened
by the presence he has felt in the old house.

“On a Sunday (when I was alone) I was in the bathroom and saw
footprints crossing the stall from under the door, but no one was
there,” he said. “Another time the swinging door in the kitchen
swung all the way open, then slowly shut without anyone touching
it.

His encounters usually occur when he is alone before or after a
shift, Caballero said, when the spirit feels “less threatened.”

The yellow house, built in 1910 by Calvin Yon, has had several
owners who have experienced unexplained instances, but there are
not any records of extraordinary occurrences in the house, said
local resident Celeste Graves.

“I’ve heard a lot of things about the house, but never heard
anything directly from someone who lived there,” said Graves, age
92.

Because of the lack of knowledge of the house’s history, the
grill’s owners are eager to see if the house has a significant past
that causes a spirit to linger, or, to put the rumors to rest once
and for all.

“People have heard it’s haunted, but no one knows anything for
sure,” said co-owner Todd Anderson. “I really want to be able to
say, ‘Yes, it is,’ or ‘No, it isn’t.’”

Although Anderson or Love has not heard any complaints or
comments from guests about a paranormal experience, one employee
reportedly encountered the unexplained during an evening shift, as
she served customers their food.

“Two months after working here, it was a really slow night, and
I had one table,” said waitress Shannon Hollis of Houston. “I was
giving people their plates and felt a tugging on my apron strings.
But when I turned around there was no one there. I walked over to
the computer in the kitchen to put another order in, and felt the
same thing.

“I didn’t feel scared, but no one could do that and get away
that fast.”

To possibly find an answer to the many questions surrounding the
Montgomery County Grille, Gabriel Morales plans to bring his best
equipment and crew, including paranormal-sensitive individuals.

A background in psychology gives Morales a desire for the
logical, but he admits anything is possible, which is why he brings
individuals who can gauge the energy and presence of spirits in a
specific area, not “psychics.”

“I like to keep things open for interpretation, and that’s one
reason I don’t want to bring a psychic who would try and talk to
the spirits,” he said, “because that’s just really hard to prove. I
just want a person with really good intuition.”

Among the various instruments Morales will bring are infrared
camcorders for recording movement in the dark and voice recorders
that can catch electronic voice phenomenon.

“They pick up voices you normally don’t here,” he said. “The
theory is spirits try to reach out by imprinting their voices on
tape magnetically.”

Regardless of the outcome, Love said she is excited for her
restaurant to be stripped for spirits.

“We invite those who believe,” she said, “and those who don’t
believe to come and find out with us.”